3 NHL'ers Who Need to be Moved . . .

The first guy will yield almost nothing in return due to his long-term guaranteed contract and that he appears to be on a career slide (downhill). A 3rd or 4th round draft pick plus maybe a younger #3 or #4 d-man might be all it takes to bring Lui aboard....

Malkin, on the other hand might yield a passel of draft picks and players. For those who think Pittsburgh would be crazy to trade the best player in the world - THINK AGAIN? As long as Crosby stays in Pittsburgh, Malky will be the #2 guy in that town. Malkin would look good in a place like Vancouver and the NUcks would love to acquire Malkin but lets not get silly. The Pens would need to get Cory Schneider, Kesler & Burrows plus a couple draft picks for Malkin, maybe taking on Five-Hole Fleury to consumnate this humungous trade. On the other hand, Pittsburgh might feel they're OK with Fleury in net and focus on landing some goodies from a lower level team like Edmonton - - - - just imagine what Edmonton might part with to get a superstar of Malkin's bearing in their camp. Perhaps this year's #1 pick, plus Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and a responsible defensive defenseman. Any thoughts?

Finally, Zach Parise is simply a free agent. Will he be re-signed? Is he too expensive? Does a low end team like Wpg. have funds to acquire the lad? Probably not, but I suspect Minnesota might, if not Minny, then St. Loo.

The first guy will yield almost nothing in return due to his long-term guaranteed contract and that he appears to be on a career slide (downhill). A 3rd or 4th round draft pick plus maybe a younger #3 or #4 d-man might be all it takes to bring Lui aboard....

Malkin, on the other hand might yield a passel of draft picks and players. For those who think Pittsburgh would be crazy to trade the best player in the world - THINK AGAIN? As long as Crosby stays in Pittsburgh, Malky will be the #2 guy in that town. Malkin would look good in a place like Vancouver and the NUcks would love to acquire Malkin but lets not get silly. The Pens would need to get Cory Schneider, Kesler & Burrows plus a couple draft picks for Malkin, maybe taking on Five-Hole Fleury to consumnate this humungous trade. On the other hand, Pittsburgh might feel they're OK with Fleury in net and focus on landing some goodies from a lower level team like Edmonton - - - - just imagine what Edmonton might part with to get a superstar of Malkin's bearing in their camp. Perhaps this year's #1 pick, plus Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and a responsible defensive defenseman. Any thoughts?

Finally, Zach Parise is simply a free agent. Will he be re-signed? Is he too expensive? Does a low end team like Wpg. have funds to acquire the lad? Probably not, but I suspect Minnesota might, if not Minny, then St. Loo.

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Like anything when it comes to Malkin he may be a better player because of his teammates in Pittsburgh. I like the guy as a player but would he really help Edmonton that much? Especially if they give up one of their better defensemen? Probably not. If I was Steve Tambellini, I wouldn't make that trade. Now, would he help the Jets? Sure, but what assets would you give up? Probably Dustin Byfuglien, maybe Blake Wheeler & for sure Winnipeg's bright young goaltender Andrej Pavlec. Is that enough to get Malkin in a trade for the Jets? Again, probably not which is why it'd never happen. If I'm the Jets GM Cheveldayoff I'd look at a potential trade for Malkin as giving up too much so, as I said, never happen. The Jets signing a player like Parise, sure but... that would throw off the salary structure of the team so I can't see it happening, either. Besides, Parise would want to go to a team that has a better chnce of winning a Stanley Cup like Vancouver, LA, Philly, New York or Boston.

I can't see Malkin being moved without nearly every top prospect or young player their trading partner has coming back Pittsburgh's way. If Edmonton wanted him they'd likely have to part ways with Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, maybe even Taylor Hall. Is that worth it for one player? Besides Pittsburgh really needs help on defense and Edmonton can't help themselves much less anyone else there. Unless maybe Pittsburgh wants to take back the near permanently injured Ryan Whitney.

A more likely candidate for trade would be Jordan Staal. He really starting to blossom offensively this year during the regular season and perhaps even more so in the playoffs. He'd be a number one center along the lines of Jonathan Toews on probably three quarters of the teams in this league. Hell I'd love to have him on the Flames!

Zach Parise can probably be had for the highest bidder but I think his preference would be to stay put. He's in a great situation right now.

Luongo probably does need to be moved, but how many teams out there are good enough to make him want to wave his no trade clause and actually have enough room under the cap to facilitate such a deal?

Parise is a kid I would love to have in Nashville. Exactly the type of player that is needed in a Predator uniform.

I would also package up Suter and Radulov and send them to Pittsburgh for Malkin and a AHL dman. Been thinking about that for a while.

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Thats an interesting trade that could benefit both teams; especially if Malkin performs at the level he's performing at the worlds and when Sid was out of the lineup. Getting Suter shores up the huge defensive void Pittsburgh has and The Rat (Radulov) could be a Malkin-lite but still subservient to Sid. The AHL d-man is probably the key to the deal, if its a guy who can legit be a solid NHL #4 or #5 d-man then Pittsburgh shouldn't hesitate.

Pittsburgh might also want the Preds 2nd or 3rd round draft pick. If thats all the extras they want, I wouldn't hesitate for a second. . . other than making sure Malkin's salary will hold up under Nashville's cap space!

According to Cap Geeks they were around $52 million this year. For the 2012-13 season (taking for granted that Bettman let's them play...) with what they currently have under contract they have $32 million in cap space. They'll have to spend money just to reach the cap floor (which should be someplace around $49 million I think? 15 million gap from max to min?).

Rids - I don't think PIttsburgh would take the 3 great young Edmonton front-liners (RNH, Eberle, Hall) for a top dawg like Evgny - they really don't need any more super stickhandlers who can easily be muscled off the puck or gawd forbid get super intimidated in playoff action (should they ever make it)....

Most hockey guys would take Nugent-Hoppy, Eberle, Hall cuz RNH could play with Sid, Eberle could play the 2nd line and Hall could be a powerplay or checking specialist who fills in for the big rifles.

Rids - I don't think PIttsburgh would take the 3 great young Edmonton front-liners (RNH, Eberle, Hall) for a top dawg like Evgny - they really don't need any more super stickhandlers who can easily be muscled off the puck or gawd forbid get super intimidated in playoff action (should they ever make it)....

Most hockey guys would take Nugent-Hoppy, Eberle, Hall cuz RNH could play with Sid, Eberle could play the 2nd line and Hall could be a powerplay or checking specialist who fills in for the big rifles.

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Hall mayu not make it thru his first 5 NHL seasons if he has any more like last year.

Due to Hall getting banged up badly, perhaps the Oilers should rethink their strategy of picking junior mega=scorers with their continued #1 picks.... certainly its stocked their teams with flashy scorers but at what - at the peril of under-sized, under-powered and under-speeded d-men who should be developing in the AHL but are hurried into game action.

Pittsburgh has two really cherry trade assets - an A+++ guy in Malkin and an A- goaler in Fleury.

The Pens could really raid the pantry of a team well stocked in flashy juniors and more #1 picks to come (including this year)..... all it might take are Nugent-Hopkins & this year's #1 for Malkin, possibly a swap of next year's #1 positions, too! Still doesn't address Pens most crying need - DEFENSE but thats where Rids suggestions come in handy.

Don't know if Pittsburgh is willing to go to the well again with Five Hole Fleury in nets. Kid is athletic as all git-out but lets in some strange goals at bad times. Vancouver, are u listening?

I think you guys are seriously undervaluing Malkin here. The guy is probably he best hockey player on the planet right now. It's going to take more than a very good but unspectacular defenseman like Ryan Suter and a flakey Alexander Radulov to pry Geno away if I'm Pittsburgh. You'd have to start with Shea Weber and go from there. And honestly I'm not sure Radulov even wants to play over here so why would anyone trade for him? Seems like a pretty massive gamble when you could just hang onto the best player in the world and probably survive just fine.

And Nate it's going to take more than an unproven RNH and an even less proven #1 pick to land Edmonton Malkin. A LOT more! Besides, as you point out yourself this does little to address the team's biggest need, defense. Even if they use the pick to take Ryan Murray he's not much more of a sure thing than the young blueliners they already have in the system. By the time he's ready, those guys may be also and the void on defense would be gone anyway.

Think about it, Brian Strait, Robert Bortuzzo, Joe Morrow, and especially Simon Despres are very close to being NHL regulars. The latter of whom already acquitted himself quite well in call up duty last year despite still being only 20 years old. And consider this, Joe Morrow is considered to have an even bigger upside. That's two up and coming guys with legitimate top 4 potential and a couple depth guy. Are you guys sure trading the best player in the world to fill a void on defense that is slowly but surely closing on it's own anyway is the most prudent course of action?

Besides I think their freewheeling, undisciplined style of play and pathetic goaltending was more the issue down the stretch and especially in the playoffs anyway. Don't forget that they were one of the stingiest teams in the league a year ago when they committed to playing strong team defense. They already have the pieces in place to be better in their own end (a defense corp that probably isn't as bad as it looked late this season, a goaltender capable of spectacular play when on his game, and plenty of strong two way forwards who got away from those strength a bit last year) and young reinforcements on their way.

A Malkin trade would be fun to talk about and send shockwaves through the league but Pittsburgh would have to get a package of at least two or three of the following in return: a superstar defenseman (and no I don't think Ryan Suter counts), a star winger, a superstar goalie (if Pittsburgh decides it's time to part ways with Fleury... More likely than a Malkin trade perhaps, but not by much), and a couple of blue chip prospects/top end draft picks. I don't see many teams with assets like that.

In light of that, may I submit Jordan Staal as a "consolation prize" for teams starved for a #1 center? He'd certainly fit in well in Nashville wouldn't you say Rids?

From a Pittsburgh point of view, trading Malkin is an insider thing - they'll never admit to pondering a trade for Geno, even when TSN "insiders" start getting tweets from their notorious group of NHL leakers (Mr. King from NHL office being the most notorious)

However, Pittsburgh would be idiots to NOT consider whats out there for Geno and if they can pull off a heist, then WHY NOT?

Of course, from Pittsburgh's point of view, their ownership and GM might say, 'Hey, Sid could be very fragile and we have to keep Geno as our secondary asset should Sid break again!"

Not a bad idea as it seems Geno really does his best work when Sid is off the ice and Geno has the leash on team leadership.

That said, a package of stars & draft picks for just one guy - has to be extremely tempting!

Need for Malkin

1. Nashville - to put themselves in better position to go further in playoffs.

2. Montreal - to return to glory days of having a top player; just don't have enough quality assets to offer the pens. (PK Subban & Price for Malkin & Fleury would have to be topped off by a packet of Montreal's top draft picks for next 2 or 3 years)

3. Edmonton - cuz they have the largest number of tradeable assets and nearly-ready players

4. Vancouver - have some very nice players to tempt Pittsburgh but they are flying close to the salary cap limit now. Making space for Malkin is their challenge.